Mexican National Sentenced for Illegal Possession of Ammunition

FRESNO, Calif. — Mario Carranza, 38, of Mexico, was sentenced four years and three months in prison for being a felon in possession of ammunition, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court documents, on March 17, 2020, law enforcement officers responded to a house in Fresno County after receiving a report of shots being fired in the backyard. Carranza and another individual were observed entering a car and leaving the area. The officers stopped the car, searched it, and recovered a disassembled, short-barrel, AR-15 style rifle with no serial number (known as a ghost gun) and a compatible firearm magazine loaded with 10 rounds of ammunition. Carranza had fired the AR-style rifle in the backyard of the residence. He is a convicted felon and prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition.

This case was the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, the Fresno Police Department, the Special Operations Unit of the California Department of Justice and the California Highway Patrol, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Justin J. Gilio and Antonio J. Pataca prosecuted the case.

This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at www.justice.gov/OCDETF.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.